Laundry device

ABSTRACT

A laundry device is disclosed. A laundry device includes a body case that defines an exterior thereof; a drum mounted within the body case to hold the laundry; a plurality of circuit substrates installed on the body case separately, on which circuit parts are mounted; and a coating guide that holds each circuit substrate. Here, the coating guide comprises a plurality of housing parts on which the circuit substrates are mounted, respectively, and a connection part flexibly formed to connect the housing parts each other. The present invention provides a laundry device which includes a coating guide fabricated as one body to reduce production cost such that various circuit parts of a circuit substrate may be accurately corresponding to a through hole and a transparent window formed on a control panel regardless of an external curvature of the control panel when the coating guide is fastened to the control panel.

This application claims the benefit of the Patent Korean Application No.10-2006-0014087, filed on Feb. 14, 2006, which is hereby incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a laundry device, more particularly, toa laundry device which has a coating guide of an improved structure toprevent misassembly between a control panel and a coating guide providedin a control assembly controlling an operation of a laundry machine.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

In general, a laundry device stands for a washer which performs washingand spinning, a dryer which performs drying and a washer combined with adrying function which performs washing and drying simultaneously.

Among them, the washer is classified into a drum type washer and apulsator type washer.

The dryer is an electric home appliance which generates and supplies hotair to the washed laundry to dry the laundry. The dryer may be usablewhen the laundry is not naturally dried well such as in a rainy season.Recently, the dryer has been increasingly popular to busy modern people.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional dryer will be described.

The conventional dryer includes a top plate 1, a cabinet 2, a frontpanel 4 and a control assembly 3.

The top plate 1 defines an upper portion of the dryer.

The cabinet 2 defines a side and rear surface of the dryer to protect adrum and various parts installed within the cabinet 2.

The front panel 4 defines a front surface of the dryer and an opening(not shown) is formed in a center of the front panel 4 to introduce thelaundry there through.

Also, a door 5 is hingedly coupled to the opening formed a side of thefront panel 4 to selectively open/close the opening.

The control assembly 3 has various operation buttons for a user tocontrol the operation of the dryer and is provided on an upper portionof the front panel 4.

Here, referring to FIG. 2, the control assembly 3 will be described indetail.

The control assembly 3 includes a control panel 31, a circuit substrate32 and a coating guide 33.

The control panel 31 defines an exterior of the control assembly 3 sothat the coating guide 33 having the circuit substrate 32 mountedthereon may be connected in rear of the control panel 31.

At that time, an opening 31 a is formed on the control panel 31 toexpose outside a button provided on the circuit substrate 32 and atransparent window 31 b is provided on the control panel 31 to make auser recognize a display of a LCD and emitting light of a LED lampprovided on the circuit substrate 32.

Circuit parts are mounted on the circuit substrate 32 to control theoperation of the dryer and electrically connected to each other based oneach function, as shown in FIG. 2.

The coating guide 33 is provided in plural to hold the plural circuitsubstrates 32 separately and closes a rear portion of the control panel31.

Here, the number of housing parts 33 a provided on the coating guide 33is the same as that of the circuit substrates 32.

However, the conventional dryer has following problems.

Since the housing parts 33 a of the coating guide 33 are separable, workeffort may increase only to increase the production cost of housingparts 33 a.

To solve the problem as shown in FIG. 3, one coating guide formed as onebody and another problem may arise.

The coating guide 43 formed as one body is coupled to a control panel 41having a gently curved shape, circuit parts of a circuit substrate 42mounted within the coating guide 43 might not be corresponding to anopening 41 a and a transparent window 41 b formed on a control panel 41.

That is, as there might be aperture between the coating guide 43 formedin a straight lined shape and the control panel 41 formed in a gentlycurved shape, a button, an LCD and an LED mounted on the circuitsubstrate 42 may not be corresponding to the opening 41 a and thetransparent window 41 b provided on the control panel 41. Thereby, theremight be misassembly or light leakage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a laundry device.

An object of the present invention is to provide a laundry device whichincludes a coating guide fabricated as one body to reduce productioncost, such that various circuit parts of a circuit substrate may beaccurately corresponding to a through hole and a transparent windowformed on a control panel regardless of an external curvature of thecontrol panel when the coating guide is fastened to the control panel.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, alaundry device includes a body case that defines an exterior thereof; adrum mounted within the body case to hold the laundry; a plurality ofcircuit substrates installed on the body case separately, on whichcircuit parts are mounted; and a coating guide that holds each circuitsubstrate. Here, the coating guide comprises a plurality of housingparts on which the circuit substrates are mounted, respectively, and aconnection part flexibly formed to connect the housing parts each other.

The connection part is formed as one body with the housing parts. Bothopposite ends of the connection part are connected to a surface of thehousing part and a surface of another housing part, which face eachother.

The thickness of connection part is smaller than the width of housingpart.

Also, the connection part is configured to connect an entire portionbetween two surfaces of housing parts which face each other. At thistime, the connection part is configured to connect some portion betweentwo surfaces of the housing parts, which face each other. Preferably,the connection part is provided in plural.

The control panel is roundly projected forwardly from both opposite endsthereof toward a center thereof.

Therefore, the laundry device according to the present invention hasfollowing advantageous effects.

First of all, since the coating guide having the plurality of housingparts is formed as one body, work effort may be saved.

That is, the coating guide can be molded as one unit when beingfabricated, the cost will be reduced and productivity is improved.

Furthermore, the thickness of connection part connecting the housingparts is smaller than the width of coating guide and the connection partis flexible. When the coating guide is fastened to the control panel,the connection part of the coating guide is curved along the externalcurvature of control panel such that the circuit substrates held withinthe coating guide can be approaching to the control panel. Accordingly,various circuit parts of the circuit substrates are corresponding to athrough hole and a transparent window of the control panel smoothly andaccurately. Thereby, there is another advantageous effect thatmisassembly may be prevented.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional dryer;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are exploded perspective views illustrating a controlassembly of the conventional dryer;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a control assemblyaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the control assembly according to theembodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are perspective views illustrating a coating guide of acontrol assembly according to another embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a control assembly of a laundry deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, a control assembly 300 includes a control panel 310,a circuit substrate 320 and a coating guide 330.

The control panel 310 defines an exterior of the control assembly 300and protects various parts installed within the control panel 310.

The exterior of control panel 310 may be straight. Recently, since theexterior of the laundry device may be entirely round shaped to enhanceexternal beauty, the control panel 310 also may be round forwardly to acenter thereof.

The control panel 310 is installed on a front panel 4 (see FIG. 1) ofthe laundry device.

A transparent window 311 is formed on the control panel 310 and aplurality of buttons 312 are formed on the transparent window 311 for auser to operate the laundry device by using the same.

A fastening boss 313 is formed on an edge within the control panel 310and a screw hole is formed on the fastening boss 313 for the coatingguide 330 to be fastened thereto.

Various circuit parts are mounted on the circuit substrate 320 tocontrol the operation of the laundry device.

Here, at least two circuit substrates 320 may be configured tocategorize the circuit parts in accordance with their functions.

As shown in FIG. 4, two circuit substrates are presented in thisspecification for convenience sake.

Also, the coating guide 330 holds each circuit substrate 320 to guideantirust liquid applied only on a predetermined area of the circuitsubstrate 320.

Here, the coating guide 330 includes housing parts 331 that hold thecircuit substrates 320 respectively and a connection part 332 thatconnects the housing parts 331 as one body.

The housing part 331 has a groove to hold the circuit substrate 320 andmay be formed in a square shape substantially similar to the shape ofthe circuit substrate 320.

The connection part 332 is flexible and connects the housing parts 331each other as one body and gently curves the exterior of the coatingguide 330 along an exterior curvature of the control panel 310.

Here, the thickness (t) of the connection part 332 is relatively smallerthan the width (T) of a circumferential surface of the housing part 331.

Here, the circumferential surface means a circumference that defines anexternal circumference of the housing part 331.

The connection part 332 connects a surface of a housing part 331 and asurface of the other housing part 331 each other, which face each other.

The connection part 332 connects the two surfaces of the housing parts331 and is formed as one body with an entire portion of the two surfacesfrom an upper end to a lower end.

By the way, a fastening part 333 is formed on the coating guide 330 andhas a fastening hole corresponding to the fastening boss 313, such thatthe coating guide 330 is fastened to the control panel 310.

The fastening structure of the control assembly provided in the dryeraccording to the above configuration will be described.

First, a cable is electrically connected between the two circuitsubstrates 320.

Next, the circuit substrates 320 are insertedly mounted in the housingparts 331, respectively.

Hence, antirust liquid is applied on the circuit substrate 320 exposedoutside of the coating guide 330 to prevent the various circuit partsmounted on the circuit substrate 320 from being wet, considering acharacteristic that the laundry device is exposed to water.

Here, antirust liquid is prevented from leaking out of circuit substrate320 by the coating guide 330.

Thus, the fastening part 333 of the coating guide 330 having the circuitsubstrate 320 mounted on is corresponding to the fastening boss 313 ofthe control panel 310.

At this time, the connection part 332 of the coating guide 330 is gentlycurved along the external curvature of control panel 310 so that thefastening hole of the fastening part 333 is corresponding to the screwhold of the fastening boss 313.

Hence, a screw is fastened to the screw hole though the fastening holeto complete the assembly of the control assembly 300.

The control assembly 300 is installed on an upper portion of a frontpanel provided in the dryer.

As mentioned before, according to the embodiment of the presentinvention, the flexible connection part 333 of the coating guide 330connects the two surfaces of the housing parts 331 from upper ends tolower ends, which face each other, and the thickness of the connectionpart 331 is smaller than the width of the circumferential surfaceconfigured in the housing part 331.

Alternatively, according to another embodiment of the present invent, aconnection part connects some portion of two surfaces of housing partsprovided in a coating guide.

As shown in FIG. 6, the control assembly according to another embodimentof the present invention has the same configurations as the controlassembly according to the above embodiment but the connection part ofanother embodiment is different from that of the embodiment.

A coating guide 400 according to another embodiment of the presentinvention includes a housing part 410 that holds each circuit substrateand a connection part 420 that connects the housing parts 410 eachother.

At this time, the connection part 420 connects only some portion betweentwo surfaces of the housing parts 410 which face each other, as shown inFIG. 6, not the entire portion between the two surfaces of the housingparts.

Here, a plurality of connection parts 420 may be provided.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 7, one connection part 420 not pluralconnection parts may be provided.

This connection part 420 may have better flexibility. But, since theconnection part 420 may be breakable due to its weak strength, it ispreferred that the connection part 420 has a predetermined height enoughnot to be breakable easily.

Therefore, the connection part 420 of the coating guide 400 according toanother embodiment of the present invention connects only some portionbetween the two surfaces of the housing parts 410 which face each otherand thereby it has an advantageous effect of reduced production cost.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. A laundry device comprising: a body case that defines an exteriorthereof; a drum mounted within the body case to hold the laundry; aplurality of circuit substrates installed on the body case separately,on which circuit parts are mounted; and a coating guide that holds eachcircuit substrate, wherein the coating guide comprises a plurality ofhousing parts on which the circuit substrates are mounted, respectively,and a connection part flexibly formed to connect the housing parts eachother.
 2. The laundry device of claim 1, wherein the connection part isformed as one body with the housing parts.
 3. The laundry device ofclaim 2, wherein both opposite ends of the connection part are connectedto a surface of the housing part and a surface of another housing part,which face each other.
 4. The laundry device of claim 1, wherein thethickness of connection part is smaller than the width of housing part.5. The laundry device of claim 4, wherein the connection part isconfigured to connect an entire portion between two surfaces of housingparts which face each other.
 6. The laundry device of claim 4, whereinthe connection part is configured to connect some portion between twosurfaces of the housing parts, which face each other.
 7. The laundrydevice of claim 6, wherein the connection part is provided in plural. 8.The laundry device of claim 1, wherein the control panel is roundlyprojected forwardly from both opposite ends thereof toward a centerthereof.
 9. A control assembly comprising: a control panel installed ona front surface of a body case, wherein a user selects variousoperations for a laundry device; a plurality of circuit substratesinstalled on the control panel separately on which circuit parts aremounted; and a coating guide that holds each circuit substrate, whereinthe coating guide comprises a plurality of housing parts in whichcircuit substrates are held, and a connection part flexibly formed toconnect the housing parts each other.
 10. The control assembly of claim9, wherein the connection part is formed as one body with the housingparts.
 11. The control assembly of claim 9, wherein both opposite endsof the connection part are connected to a surface of the housing partand a surface of another housing part, which faces each other.
 12. Thecontrol assembly of claim 9, wherein the width of connection part issmaller than the width of housing part.
 13. The control assembly ofclaim 11, wherein the connection part is formed to connect an entireportion between the two surfaces of the housing parts which face eachother.
 14. The control assembly of claim of 11, wherein the connectionpart is formed to connect some portion of the two surfaces of thehousing parts, which face each other.
 15. The control assembly of claim14, wherein the connection parts is provided in plural.
 16. The controlassembly of claim 9, wherein the control panel is projected roundly andforwardly from both opposite ends thereof to a center thereof.